Review Detail

Peter Jackson's King Kong is a favorite of mine. I actually *gasp* prefer it to the original 1933 film. The biggest criticism of the film is that it is too long. I get that. It is too long. I don't mind the length, however. I like how Jackson turned the story of the Eight Wonder into an epic. That said it can still do with a bit of trimming.

This edit, however, is not just the result of a bit of trimming. There is a lot of cutting here. I knew before I even watched this edit that I wasn't going to like this nearly as much as the theatrical version and, guess what, I didn't. I'm someone who's big on characterization, and I really appreciated the scenes in the original cut focusing on that. Well, those scenes are gone here. It's bare bones character development and, while it works, we miss out on all the subtleties of the different relationships. As such, I didn't completely buy Jack's attachment to Ann, and Ann's attachment to the titular beast.

But the story moves so fast that it doesn't really matter. While I enjoy the theatrical version much better, I'm quite fond of this version too. TMBTM turned the movie into a fun, mysterious, and rip-roaring 108 minute adventure, and that's pretty cool.